Wishful Princess
by Morning. xx
Summary: MultiChap- Cho Chang wants to be a princess, because she wants to fall in love and live happily ever after like women do in her Mummy's book of fairytales. -When Cho Chang is seven, she wants to be...-
1. the twelve dancing princesses

So, while attempting to fall asleep two nights back, while my mind was in full writing mode, I came up with this. This is a little girl growing up listening to her Muggleborn mother's fairytales, who decides that falling in love and being a princess coincide, and want to be a princess. I'm sure most of the girls out there have wanted to be a princess, and have dressed up in pretty little gowns, and danced around the house. This is Cho, wanting to be a princess, from age three, to thirty-four.

This is going to be ten chapters long, and I'm going to post one chapter every Saturday. Except… I'm going away for two weeks this Saturday, so I'm posting one chapter today, and another tomorrow.

Just a little heads up, I am _not_ J.K.Rowling, and I don't own Cho, but I own her parents and this story.

* * *

**Wishful Princess**

**(the twelve dancing princesses)**

When Cho Chang is three, she wants to be one of the princesses in the story 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses'.

She wants to put on a pretty dress every night, and tug on a pair of matching slippers, and glide down the stairs behind the hidden door to the lake. A gondolier would take her across the lake to a bejeweled palace, where she would dance the night away with the evil sons of an eviler witch.

Then, after years of dancing in the night, wearing away her slippers, her father would send a man to investigate. The oldest sister would trick him, and give him drugged wine. This would happen to the second man as well, until the wily guardsman would come. He would not be fooled by the wine, and would hide under his invisibility cloak, and bring back three things from the castle under theirs. And then she would live happily ever after.

Cho tells her Mummy and Daddy what she wants to be, her big brown eyes solemn as she answers their questions.

"Which princess would you want to be?" asks Daddy, after laughing at Mummy about her Muggle fairytales.

"The seventh one," Cho replies, swinging her legs over the edge of the dock into the cool lake.

With a little smile, Mummy ruffles her hair, "And why the seventh one?"

"Because seven is a big girl number," Cho informs her mother, sagely tossing a rock into the water.

Mummy and Daddy smile, and lean back to watch Cho dance on the dock, pretending to be the seventh princess, dancing with her evil prince until someone comes to save her.

The next day, Daddy comes home from work with a pretty pink hat-box, which he promptly hands to Cho. Cho's little hands feel the box, taking in the baby pink and white striped box, and the polka-dot lid. She strokes the dark pink velvet ribbon, and carefully unties it, listening to the whispers of the fabric as it slides down into a little heap. She lifts off the lid, and lets it fall with a clatter as her eyes take in what lies in the box.

A pair of pink ballet shoes were waiting for her in there, lying on a black long-sleeved leotard. A pair of white stockings, still in their plastic wrappings, rest off to the side, and with shaking fingers she caresses everything. Her eyes fall on the pink skirt, edges just peeking out under the leotard, the slippers and the stockings, and with a shout, she pulls out her ballerina skirt.

"Now," Daddy says, with a big smile, "you can dance just like the princess."

And Cho takes ballet lessons, learning to _pirouette_, and _pliée_. She practices her _pliée_s in the living room, reminding herself "No hippo-butts!"

At her recital, Mummy and Daddy cry to see their little girl dancing for everyone, twirling in her short ballgown that Mummy sewed with a little help from her wand. Her dance is to the Hungarian Rhapsody, and is based on 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses'. Cho does _sautées_ with her partner, and she laughs happily, because she's the seventh princess.


	2. beauty and the beast

Hey guys,

This is Chapter Two, like I promised. Which means you'll get nothing from me until the Saturday after the 11th of August. Nothing much else to say other than yes, I am writing a fluff story instead of a love/angst/broken-hearted story. I figured I needed a change.

Oh, and please don't think I'm J.K.Rowling. If I were, I'd be rolling in cash. And for that matter, nor do I own Beauty and the Beast.

* * *

**Wishful Princess**

**(beauty and the beast)**

When Cho Chang turns seven- the big girl age- she wants to be Belle, from 'Beauty and the Beast'.

Cho wants to be kind enough to go as payment for her father picking a rose. She wants to learn to love the Beast that keeps her imprisoned. To find her father and heal him, return to her beloved Beast, and find him dying on the floor. She would kiss him, and tell him she loved him, and to her surprise he would become a handsome prince, and they would live happily ever after.

To truly become Belle, Cho decides to be kind, and to read. She takes Mummy's big books of Muggle fairytales and learns to stumble over the words, until she can read perfectly. She reads about all the other princesses in the book, but keeps flipping back to _'La Belle et la Bête'_, as they say in French.

At dinner one night, over her plate of spaghetti, Cho tells Mummy and Daddy about her change in plans.

Mummy's eyes shine, and she reaches over to her daughter, and brushes a lock of Cho's dark hair behind her ear, "You'll make the perfect Belle, _ma chèrie,"_ Mummy says, as ever, her French flawless.

"Does this mean that you don't want to take ballet anymore, sweetheart?" Daddy asks, thinking of the new pair of ballet shoes he has upstairs for Cho's birthday.

"No, Daddy, don't be silly!" Cho is shocked that he would ever think such a thing. "Belle dances too, Daddy. She dances with Beast after they have a nice dinner in the big Hall."

"I bet they didn't have a dinner as nice as this spaghetti," Daddy laughs, and twirls his fork, gathering strands of spaghetti the way a lady gathers her skirt.

When Cho tries to fall asleep that night, she pictures Mummy and Daddy as Beauty and the Beast.

Mummy, with her long brown hair shining over her shoulder, draping elegantly over her gown and Daddy, with his perpetual smile, and stunning grace.

Mummy's gown would be the same colour as Cho's favorite lipstick of Mummy's, a deep scarlet. It would be a v-neck, and tight until the hips, where it would bell out. It would whisper as they danced, scarlet folds talking softly to each other as the wearers beat out a lovely waltz together. It would be silk, Cho decided the next day, after feeling the material that Mummy wanted to make Cho's own ballgown in.

Daddy would be wearing one of his silly, and yet pretty in a boy way, penguin suit robes. He would billow as they danced, black silk rubbing against the red that Cho so loved. His shoes would make a handsome tapping to go with Mummy's clicking heels, and the music would incorporate them into the song. It would all be a beautiful jumble of whispering silk, clicking shoes and music.

Cho is kind, like Belle, when she says to Mummy, "Can I give some of my money to the Muggles who are looking to cure cancer?"

Mummy stops her sewing machine, and leaves the cream and blue silk in it as she gets down on her knees beside where Cho is re-reading the fairytale book. She wraps her arms around her daughter, and lifts her up to rest on her hip. Cho drops the book and returns the hug, smiling happily.

Mummy is crying into Cho's hair, missing Grandmère, who went to dance with the princesses forever a month ago. Cho misses Grandmère too, but is happy that she gets to dance forever.

"Cancer is like a dragon," Cho says, in the wise words of a seven-year-old, "but we can beat the dragon if we have enough money. I've got fourteen Muggle dollars, Mummy, in my birthday money. Can the cancer people have it?"

"Yes, yes, my darling," Mummy says, kissing her daughter's cheek. "You can help them beat the dragon, _ensemble, nous pourrons tuer cette bête. Ma brave Belle._"


	3. the frog prince

Bonjour,

I'm sitting at my computer, wondering what to do, and then, it hits me. 'Shoot! I was supposed to type up the rest of Frog Prince yesterday!' First, I had to find the notebook, which wasn't easy… So I typed it up, and edited it a little, to make it presentable. Here 'tis!

I don't own Harry Potter, or the Frog Prince. Which isn't to say I wouldn't _like_ to…

* * *

**Wishful Princess**

**(the frog prince)**

It's the day before she leaves for Hogwarts, and Cho Chang decides that she's not too old to play in her dress-up trunk. She runs her hands along the silks and velvets, and strokes the taffeta and brocade. Mummy made all the dresses in the trunk, and every time Cho grew, Mummy would tap the dresses one-by-one, and mutter a charm to make them grow to fit her again.

Cho sits on the edge of the trunk, and looks at her dresses, thinking how strange it will be to leave home. "I'll come home though," Cho says to the dresses, arms clutched around the book of fairytales. "I'll wear you all again and dance to the music in my head."

She wiggles her toes, and adores the feel of the pink ballet shoes on her feet. She's bringing them to Hogwarts, so she'll never stop dancing. As if to prove herself right, a melody begins to play in her head, and she remembers the steps to this dance. This recital had been the best, afterwards, all the dancers took pictures with each other, and the instructors gave them chocolate Popsicles.

Laughing, she digs through her costume trunk, book forgotten, searching for the dress from the recital. With a triumphant whoop, she pulls out the deep red dress, whose skirt stops a little below her knee, falling in an elegant bell-shape that Cho loves to dance in. She slips it on, and carefully begins to dance, humming the 'Ode de Joy'.

-

Sitting on the Hogwart's Express, leaning against the window, brown eyes dark as she contemplated the year she would be away from home. Cho knows that she'll go home for the holidays, but that's only a little while. "But maybe, maybe it'll be worth being away from home," she whispers softly, breath misting on the cold window.

Outside, it's raining hard, and Cho can hear the drumming that the raindrops make on the roof of the train. It reminds her of a dance that she had done, but her feet won't move, and her head can't remember the steps. She can only remember being hugged and kissed by Mummy and Daddy, and she can only see their faces as they waved goodbye.

Her hands tighten around the book of fairytales, and with a heavy sigh, she opens the book. Cho loses herself in the stories she's read over and over again, though they are still as magical as the first time. This is why she doesn't hear the door as it slides open, nor the voice that politely queries, "May I sit here?"

After a pause, the voice repeats itself, "Um, excuse me? May I sit here?"

"P-pardon?" Cho emerges from the story, eyes a little hazy.

"May I sit here?" The speaker is a tall boy, wearing his black robes already. He has a black and yellow tie, _Hufflepuff_, she remembers her Daddy telling her. His sandy blonde hair is neatly combed, and his angular face is clean and incredibly handsome. The brown eyes are questioning.

"Of course," Cho smiles. "Make yourself comfortable."

"Thanks," the boy sits opposite to her, and extends his hand. "I'm Cedric Diggory, this is my third year."

"Pleased to meet you," she says softly, shaking the proffered hand. "I'm Cho Chang."

"Pleasure's all mine," Cedric laughs, brown eyes dancing.

Cho can't help it, she thinks that this boy is wickedly handsome, and is put at easy by his courtesy and happy smile.

"I don't quite recognize you, is this your first year?" Cedric enquires, straightening his tie.

"Yes, it is." Cho's voice is flat.

"Hogwarts is wonderful," he flashes that easy grin again. "You'll love it. I can't say how great the other Houses are, but Hufflepuff is fantastic. Which do you think you'll be in, Cho?"

"I don't know," she smiles back. "My Mum was in Ravenclaw, and my Dad was in Hufflepuff, so I'm clueless."

"Well, here, let me help you. Tell me a bit about yourself, and I'll see what I think the Sorting Hat will do."

"That'd be great! Okay, so, I love to read," Cho's eyes begin to regain their happiness, and they dance in time to Cedric's.

"I figured," Cedric raps the book on her lap with his knuckles. "Mind if I look?"

"Oh, no, not at all." And she offers him the tome, letting her fingers slide out of where she had stopped. No matter, she knows the ending, "And they lived happily ever after," she whispers.

"Pardon?"

"I said, 'And they lived happily ever after.' That's how each story ends."

"Are these fairytales?" Cedric raises an eyebrow.

"Yep."

"No Beedle the Bard?"

"Oh, that's in my trunk," Cho's nose wrinkles. "I like these better."

"Cinderella? The Frog Prince? What fairytales are these, I've never read them!"

"They're Muggle fairytales, the book used to be my mum's. She's a Muggleborn."

"Oh, well, if they're precious too you, I won't keep them any longer." He hands the book back to her, and shifts in his seat. "You'd best get your robes on, we're almost there. There're some bathrooms if you turn left, three compartments up.

"Thanks," Cho says, taking her robes from her bag. She walks out of the compartment, and looks at Cedric, wondering is he is her Prince Charming.

-

It's a month after being sorted, and Cho finds herself in the middle of a crowd of fellow Ravenclaws. She's proud of her House, and she makes sure to keep her tie straight, and to be a good student. Sometimes, she meets Cedric in the library, and he helps her with her homework. He always loves to look at her book of fairytales.

Cho's heart sinks. Her book of fairytales.

She had it three days ago, when she last met Cedric in the library. They had read 'The Frog Prince' together, and Cho had decided that she would be the Pond Princess. She hadn't told Cedric about her decision, but right after the warning bell rang for curfew, Cho rushed to her dorm to write a letter to Mummy about the new princess. She had realized that she didn't have the book with her when she had finished her letter. Cho had cried herself to sleep.

The next morning, she had looked in the library, but the table where she and Cedric had worked was clean.

Cho hastily wipes away a tear, and settles down for her Transfiguration class.

Time goes by quickly, and soon enough, she's at her House table, eating lunch. It's a delicious soup, but Cho can't taste it. She desperately wants to be the Pond Princess, the princess who had lost her golden ball, and who got a frog to retrieve it. The frog came and lived with her in the palace, until she gave it the kiss she had promised at the pond. The frog had turned into a prince, and they lived happily ever after.

Cho wants her frog to find the book, and bring it to her. She'd kiss him, and he'd become her prince, and they would "Live happily ever after," she mumbles into her soup.

"Hey! Cho!" Cedric calls, fighting his way through the crowd, "I need some help with my Charms, do you want to meet up in the library tonight?"

"Yeah, s-"

"Is this a date, Cedric?" One of his friends jibes. "Aww, lookit our ickle Ced, guys! He's all grown up! Goin' on a date with a pretty Ravenclaw! An' wot's your name, precious?"

Cedric's cheeks flame a ruddy red, and he gazes imploringly at her.

"Cho Chang. And I'm not your precious."

"Naw, yer his!" And the boy bursts into laughter.

"No, I'm my own. Cedric's my friend, and I'm going to help him with his Charms, and he with my Transfiguration," she pauses, and looks at Cedric, who nods quickly. "Please stop taunting us."

The friend looks around at the other boys, and sees no faces encouraging him. "Eh, right then. Ced, you know I'm kiddin', right?"

Cedric dug his hand into his pockets, "It's not funny Wolsley."

Wolsley colours, and storms away, cursing loudly.

"Idiot," remarks Cedric, almost casually to Cho.

She laughs, and realizes that she can't wait for tonight.

-

Cho sits in the library, flicking through her Transfiguration textbook, looking for the section on proper wand movements for Switching Spells. She's making a lot of mistakes, and keeps erasing simple words that she's misspelled.

She doesn't normally make mistakes, and when she gets her blotch-free essay back, there's usually a note under the big O or E that compliments her on her excellent spelling. But Cho isn't concentrating on her work.

Rather, her mind is dancing around two things. The first being a tall, sand-haired boy, with grey eyes, and a light dusting of freckles across his nose. She doesn't know exactly why her thoughts are so entangled with Cedric Diggory, but she's certain she'd know if she had her book of fairytales. But therein lies her second problem. Cho has scoured the library, searching for the tome. She's been unsuccessful again tonight, but Cedric might help with the search.

With a sigh, she rereads her essay, moaning at the incoherent run-on sentences that make no sense. She snorts as she reads the passage on the incantation, and taps her wand on the scrawled 'Wingardium Leviosa', and mutters _"Evanesco."_ The page is now blank.

"Hey, Cho," Cedric says, smiling as he dumps his bag on the floor beside his chair. "Ready?"

"Yeah," she smiles half-heartedly. "Well, no," and the smile falls into a frown. "I can't concentrate. I'm so worried about my book, and I can't keep my mind off of y-" she stops, diverting her eyes, not wanting to tell him how he had been waltzing through her mind since lunch.

"Off of?" Cedric prompts.

"Oh, you know… other stuff," Cho waves her hand dismissively.

"Well," and the smile's back on his amazingly handsome face, "I might just be able to help fix that." With the air of Father Christmas drawing a present from his sack, he pulls a leather-bound volume out of his bag, and places it in front of her.

"How…?" Cho tenderly takes the book into her hands, and turns the pages, looking for a certain story.

"Do they all end the same way?" Cedric asks.

" 'And they lived happily ever after,' " she recites, her finger sliding under the words that finished 'The Frog Prince'.

"When we were here three nights ago, you left first, remember? I wanted to finish that paragraph in my essay, and I saw that you'd forgotten your book. I've been carrying it in my bag ever since. I read them all- the stories. Why've some of them got pencil marks? 'The Beauty and the Beast', and… er…" Cedric falters.

" 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses,' " she supplies.

"Yeah, that."

"Sit down, it's sort of… a long story." He obliges, and she explains that all her life she's wanted to be a princess, like in the book. She wants to fall in love and live happily ever after. "At three, I wanted to be the seventh princess in 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses'. Seven, I wanted to be Belle," Cho finishes with a shrug.

"And now?" Cedric inquires, eyebrow raised.

"The Pond Princess." Without a moment's hesitation.

"The ball- right? The golden ball, it's your… your book?"

"Yes." It's a whisper, and her heart beats faster. He's so close to her face, and she can feel his breath going in and out.

"You'll kiss the frog- me, right? And the frog'll turn into a prince?" Closer still.

"Yes." She gasps softly as his lips touch hers.

Then, in her head, bells ring, music plays, and from the crown of her silky black head, to her ballet-slipper clad toes, she's dizzy. Her stomach's doing flip-flops, and her heart is dancing a gavotte. Her blood is pumping faster, and her hands are useless at her sides.

They both draw back, and Cedric's cloudy eyes are concerned, "Was that, you know… er, okay? Am I, uh, am I a prince now?"

Cho's shocked and delighted. "You were always a prince!" she exclaims.

"You know what happens next, right?" The eyebrow wiggles again.

" 'And they lived happily ever after,' " the two chorused, and Cho knew that her fairytale had come true.


End file.
